Butch Cassidy (8 page)

For the most part, the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang hid out at Robber’s Roost. In Matt Warner’s autobiography, he described Robber’s Roost as “wild country. . . . The wildest kind of buttes and spires rise above the level of the mesas . . . deep, dizzy canyons.” Newspapers reported the streams held treacherous quicksand.

Warner wrote that a number of outlaws knew the advantages of hiding out at Robber’s Roost, a remote, mazelike canyon land located in southeastern Utah, roughly between Hanksville to the west and Moab to the east. There were a number of cabins in the Roost, as well as plenty of freshwater springs and graze for the horses.

It was extremely difficult to track men on the run in that rough country. Many lawmen avoided the Roost for they were simply not willing to encounter desperate outlaws in their own, easily defensible territory.

Over the years, outlaws on the run—the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang as well as others—hid out in a number of different locations in Wayne County, Utah, west of the Green River; all of the locations at one time or another were referred to as “Robber’s Roost.”

In 1896, Elzy Lay married Maude Davis. The two moved to Robber’s Roost and lived in a tent during the winter months. Nearby, living in another tent, were Harry Longabaugh and his woman, Etta Place.

While many researchers and writers are in agreement that Etta Place and Longabaugh were lovers, it has been speculated that she may have actually been Butch Cassidy’s woman, at least for a short time. In the book
The Wild Bunch at Robber’s Roost
by Pearl Baker, the author claims Etta Place and Butch Cassidy shared a tent. Still other researchers maintain there is no substantial evidence that the woman living in the tent with the Sundance Kid (or Butch Cassidy) at the time was Etta Place. Even today, Etta Place remains one of the American West’s most mysterious and enigmatic figures.

Sometime in the spring of 1897, the gang disbanded for a time and all moved out of Robber’s Roost. Before leaving the hideaway, however, Cassidy and Lay concocted plans to rob the payroll from the Pleasant Valley Coal Company (PVCC) at Castle Gate, Utah.

Castle Gate was located in the northeastern part of the state near Price. The town had little reason to exist save for coal. Coal mining and associated businesses dominated the economics of Castle Gate, almost to the exclusion of all others. Buildings, roads, and most of the residents of the town seemed to be perpetually covered in coal dust.

This was the setting when Butch Cassidy and Elzy Lay rode into the town. Some claim they were accompanied by Bub Meeks and Joe Walker, but there is no clear consensus on this.

Cassidy and Lay worked for a short time at a nearby ranch, coming into town occasionally to investigate procedures relative to the arrival and disbursement of the payroll. Since Castle Gate was overwhelmingly a mining town, the arrival of two cowhands on horseback was a noteworthy event and attracted attention. Because attention was the last thing they wished, and because they were determined to learn the somewhat irregular and confusing payroll schedule, Cassidy and Lay decided they needed to do something that would allow them to come and go without arousing suspicion. They quickly learned that, while there were few horses in Castle Gate, horse racing was a popular activity. Fitting their mounts with racing saddles and bridles, they told anyone who inquired that they were training their horses for upcoming races in Salt Lake City. This response appeared to satisfy the curious.

The two outlaws soon learned that the train carrying the payroll arrived from Salt Lake City twice per month. To confuse would-be robbers, however, E. L. Carpenter, the paymaster for the Pleasant Valley Coal Company, never paid the workers on the same day. Instead, payday was announced by a certain blast of the mine whistle, at which time the workers would gather around PVCC headquarters to receive their wages.

When Cassidy and Lay were not watching the trains and train schedules, they were selecting locations at which to place getaway horses along the escape route. They decided it should be easy enough to take the payroll and, with the help of the relay mounts, outdistance the posse to Robber’s Roost, almost one hundred miles away. While they were making their plans to rob the payroll, Cassidy used the opportunity to get his horse accustomed to the sudden blasts of the train whistle. Because the site selected for the robbery was close to the train depot, Cassidy feared his normally skittish mount would be frightened by the noise. To prepare his getaway horse, he would regularly ride him next to locomotives as they arrived in town and approached the station.

It took Cassidy and Lay about one week to learn what they needed to know. Just before noon on Wednesday, April 21, 1897, the train carrying passengers, goods, and the company payroll was heard in the distance approaching the town. Moments later, the Denver and Rio Grande Number 2 pulled up to the loading platform next to the depot. As the passengers were stepping out of the cars, the mine whistle blew, announcing payday. Within minutes, miners and others began to gather in town in anticipation of their bimonthly pay.

Cassidy and Lay mingled with the growing throng of workers and tried to look as inconspicuous as possible. Lay was on horseback, holding the reins to Cassidy’s mount. Cassidy was seated, slouched on a wooden crate near the wooden stairway that led to the second-floor offices of the Pleasant Valley Coal Company in one of the town’s largest buildings. As Cassidy learned earlier, the payroll was to be delivered to this office.

With the sound of the locomotive chuffing at the depot, paymaster Carpenter, accompanied by his deputy clerk, T. W. Lewis, came out of the second-floor office, descended the stairs, and hurried over to the depot. Some reports claim he was accompanied by two clerks. After crossing the tracks and entering the station, Carpenter was greeted by the express car messenger who handed over to him a leather satchel containing currency and checks. He also passed to the paymaster three canvas sacks: one of the sacks contained gold coins, and the other two were filled with silver. The total value of the payroll, according to records, was $9,860. Carpenter carried the satchel and one sack of coins, and Lewis hoisted the remaining bags. Toting their burdens, the two men left the station, crossed back over the tracks, and headed back toward the wooden steps leading to the PVCC payroll office.

When Carpenter and Lewis were still several paces from the stairway, Butch Cassidy casually rose from his seated position and confronted them. He pulled his revolver, placed the point of the barrel within an inch of Carpenter’s face, and commanded the two men to release their parcels, raise their hands, and step away. The frightened Carpenter dropped the satchel and sack he was carrying immediately, but assistant Lewis turned and bolted toward the front door of the building, still holding onto one of the sacks of silver.

By this time, Lay had ridden up, leading the spare horse. Cassidy picked up the satchel and the two sacks of coins. He tossed the sacks to Lay, who was forced to drop the reins to Cassidy’s horse to catch them. The mount, already high strung and sensing the nervous excitement, broke away and ran down the street. Holding tightly to the two bags of silver, Lay spurred his horse in pursuit of the other, catching him about a block away. Clutching the satchel, Cassidy waved his revolver at the gathering crowd, telling them to stay where they were so no one would get hurt. He then turned and ran to meet Lay, who was leading the second horse back up the street.

Cassidy leaped into the saddle, and together the two robbers raced down the street toward the town limits as dozens of onlookers stared in shocked silence. Before the two bandits were out of sight, shots were fired at them from the second-floor office of the coal company, presumably by the deputy clerk.

Cassidy and Lay had almost reached the town limits without experiencing any harm or resistance. Because it took such a long time for a posse to become organized, the two outlaws had time to stop, dismount, cut the telephone wires, remount, and continue their escape. (Some have claimed Meeks and Walker may have been stationed some distance out of town to cut the telegraph wires.) During the stop, the currency was removed from the satchel, which was discarded. The outlaws also apparently decided to abandon one of the sacks of coins because it was too difficult to transport, leaving behind $860 in silver.

A town resident named Frank Caffey climbed into his buggy and undertook a half-hearted pursuit of the robbers. Near the town limits, he found the abandoned payroll satchel. Nearby lay the bag containing the silver.

As Cassidy and Lay rode away to the south toward the town of Helper, paymaster Carpenter hurried to the depot to telegraph the sheriff at Price and quickly discovered the lines were dead. Noticing the locomotive was still running, he jumped into the cab and ordered the engineer to uncouple the engine from the rest of the train and make haste to Price where he would alert the sheriff in person.

It has been written that, as the locomotive passed out of the town limits gathering speed, Carpenter and the engineer both failed to notice Cassidy and Lay hiding behind a section house located near the tracks. The likelihood, however, is that the outlaws were trying to get as much distance between themselves and Castle Gate as possible.

Eventually, posses from Price, Huntington, Castle Dale, and Cleveland were formed and attempted to either overtake or intercept the bandits. Along their escape route, the outlaws bypassed the major roads, preferring to cut across unsettled country. Occasionally when they encountered a telegraph line, they cut it, further frustrating the coordination of pursuit. The posses, apparently inept to begin with, remained confused and ineffective. In one instance, a posse was so convinced another posse was the gang of outlaws they were pursuing that they opened fire on them, wounding at least one.

Following the holdup, Cassidy, after separating from his companions, rode to the Dan Hillman Ranch, located along the east flank of the Big Horn Mountains. He posed as a traveler, introduced himself as LeRoy Parker, and was offered a meal. Following dinner, Cassidy asked rancher Hillman for a job and was hired to mend fences, milk cows, and put up hay.

Hillman was quickly impressed with this new hand who worked harder than any of his others. Parker, as the stranger called himself, quickly established a friendship with Hillman’s thirteen-year-old son, Fred. During his stay at the Hillman Ranch, Parker also taught the youngster how to shoot.

One afternoon while loading hay from the field onto the back of a wagon driven by Fred, Parker spied a rattlesnake. Impaling it with the tines of his pitchfork, he tossed it onto the wagon, much to the terror of the young Hillman, who leaped from his perch onto the ground. All enjoyed a good laugh over the incident, and young Fred Hillman never forgot the man who befriended him during his brief stay at the Hillman Ranch.

Occasionally, Parker was visited by a friend, and the two men were often seen engaged in quiet conversation. Years later, Fred Hillman recalled that Parker called his friend “Elzy.”

One morning, Parker failed to appear for breakfast, and Fred was told to go to the bunkhouse and summon him. On arriving at the bunkhouse, Fred found a note stuck in the door that read, “Sorry to be leaving you. The authorities are getting on to us. Best home I’ve ever had. LeRoy Parker (Butch Cassidy).”

Cassidy and Lay eventually arrived at Robber’s Roost, carrying with them approximately $7,000 in gold and silver coins and a large wad of currency without encountering any lawmen. According to a number of sources, none of them verifiable, Cassidy and Lay cached some of the gold at some secret location in the Wind River Mountains.

On June 28, 1897, the Belle Fourche, South Dakota, bank was robbed. To this day, there remains controversy over who participated in the holdup. Some have tried to link Cassidy and Elzy Lay with the robbery, pointing out that both were in the area at the same time. No evidence, however, has ever surfaced to suggest such was the case. Some are also certain that Harry Longabaugh was one of the bandits, but the contention lacks substantiation. The consensus is that the robbery was committed by at least four, perhaps as many as six, bandits, with one of them most likely being George “Flatnose” Currie. Three others, according to a wanted poster that was issued within days of the robbery, were Harvey Ray and two men both given the last name of Roberts.

The identity of the man called Harvey Ray has never been established, the name probably being an alias. The two Roberts may very well have been Harvey Logan and his younger brother, Lonnie.

During May 1898, it was reported that Butch Cassidy and Joe Walker had been shot and killed by lawmen following another robbery. The bodies of the two dead men were transported by wagon to the town of Price where they were “positively” identified by authorities as Cassidy and Walker.

According to Betenson, Butch Cassidy, on learning he had been killed by lawmen, traveled to Price and, hiding in a covered wagon, viewed the body of the dead man through a hole in the canvas. If true, the event was yet another manifestation of Cassidy’s keen sense of humor. Later, Cassidy allegedly told relatives he thought “it would be a good idea to attend his own funeral just once during his lifetime.”

While Cassidy observed the remains of the misidentified dead man, he was taken aback by the behavior of the crowd of onlookers. A large number of mourners passed by, many of them women who were crying.

The dead man who was identified as Cassidy was placed in a coffin and buried the following day. As a result of some concern expressed by several law enforcement authorities, the body was exhumed a short time later and the dead man subjected to another identification. Cassidy’s lawyer, Douglas A. Preston, along with Uinta County sheriff John Ward, was summoned to make an identity. It has been written that Preston was so relieved the body was not that of his friend Cassidy that he undertook a celebration and stayed drunk for almost a week. The dead man was subsequently identified as John Herring, a petty outlaw known to rob travelers.